Is Musharraf irreproachable?
Rauf Klasra

President Musharraf has always shown great condescension towards Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif for their 'corrupt' activities; a Cabinet Division report reveals that the president is not beyond reproach himself

A Cabinet Division report to the National Assembly of Pakistan has disclosed that in the period 2003-2004, President Pervez Musharraf took home 63 gifts (valued at Rs 9 million) given him by foreign dignitaries. These gifts include gold and diamond jewelry worth Rs 7 million for which Gen Musharraf only had to pay Rs 1.1 million under the rules.

The CD report, which gives detail of gifts presented to various officials by foreign dignitaries and governments, was given to the National Assembly after MNA Mrs Rubina Saadat Qaim Khani asked the Cabinet Division Minister to provide to the house details of the gifts deposited in the Toshakhana during the year 2003-2004. The MNA also wanted to know how much income was generated through auction of these gifts during the period in question.

The report reveals that the Toshakhana held no auction during this period. The officials who received these gifts retained most of them. President Musharraf was the biggest beneficiary.

Official sources say that a public auction, if it were held, would have brought millions to the coffers. While officials have broken no rule in retaining the gifts, paying the 15 percent charge on all gifts exceeding Rs 400,000, critics raise several questions, especially in regard to Musharraf’s decision to keep the gifts: why did Musharraf not refuse the gifts even if he could retain them lawfully; should he not have done so to prove that he is ‘above’ such things; why should he not have looked into this practice and amended the law which facilitates the retention of gifts by officials at just 15 percent of the total cost of gifts exceeding Rs 400,000?

In mid 2005, new instructions by the Cabinet Division prohibited all government functionaries from accepting gifts from foreign representatives stationed in Pakistan. According to these instructions, government functionaries could only retain gifts according to a certain criteria while all antiques gifted to a government official had to be handed over to museums or art galleries. A rigorous procedure had to be followed before any official could keep a gift given to him/her by a foreigner.

According to that official notification outlining the new procedures, “All government/public functionaries, except the president and the head of the government, are prohibited from receiving gifts of any kind for their person or for their families from diplomats, consular and other foreign government representatives who are stationed in Pakistan, or from any public organisation or private individual and firm within the country”.

The Cabinet Division report presented before the NA says 265 gifts were received during 2003-2004, out of which 194 were either retained free of cost or by paying a small portion of the total price. Musharraf kept 63 gifts in this time period. “There are no lists for earlier years or the number of items would perhaps be much greater,” said one observer.

Below is a list of some of the items retained by Musharraf:

Gold and Diamond necklace, purse and earrings worth Rs 115,000, Rs 275,000, and Rs 125,500, respectively. Musharraf only paid Rs 75,000 for these three items. Another jewelry set worth Rs 2.634 million was taken home by Musharraf for Rs 393,658 only. In total, charges of Rs 3.3 million were waived off this jewelry. He also kept yet another jewelry set worth Rs 4.7 million by paying only Rs 709,512 while Rs 4 million was waived off.

According to the Cabinet Division list, President Musharraf retained some of the following gifts free of cost. The value of each item is given in parenthesis:

Metallic tea set (Rs 4,000), decoration piece (Rs 4,000), Germanic tea set (Rs 4,000), frame (Rs 8,500), wall mirror (Rs 7,000), jewelry box (Rs1,000), rug (Rs2,500), metal decoration (Rs1,650), sari (Rs 1,200), carpet (Rs 4,000), flower vase (Rs 8,500), one Gens elephant (Rs3500), sari (Rs 2,500), ladies wristwatch DeLaneau ( Rs 3,85,000), ladies wristwatch Ebel (Rs 3,50,000), watch (Rs 6,500), Versace pens (Rs 12,000), model of the Hajre Aswad (Rs 17,000), sword (Rs 10,000), crystal bowl (Rs 4,000), carpet (Rs 18,000).